What You Must Do After Your Next Workout

If your gym offers massage therapy, you might want to treat yourself to a session after your next cycling class or bout with the elliptical. A new study from the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation suggests that a hands-on Swedish-style message (which uses longer strokes than other techniques) can ease post-workout muscle soreness and improved blood circulation—validating previous findings based on smaller studies.

To conduct the study, researchers asked a group of young adults to exercise using a leg-press machine until their legs felt sore. Half an hour later, the researchers had half the subjects get a leg rubdown. The subjects who had the massage reported no muscle soreness after 90 minutes following their message session—while the other group still had achy legs a full day later. The researchers also measured the study subjects' blood flow, and the massage group had more vigorous flow than the other group for a full 72 hours afterward—important because poor blood flow can be a sign of muscle injury. In addition, a third group of study subjects who didn't exercise at all but were treated to a massage also racked up better circulation, which suggests that massage could boost blood flow in people who are sedentary.

Of course, it's no surprise that touch can help relax you after a fitness session. But this research (which—full disclosure—was partially funded by a research grant from the Massage Therapy Foundation) demonstrates that massage may have real physiological benefits. Don't take the study authors' word for it—schedule a massage ASAP (or get your partner to rub you down), and see if muscle tightness takes a hike. Or if a massage isn't in the cards, you could also use a foam roller for similar muscle-relaxing results.